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Costco and Bible Fiction

The folks over at FOX News are running an article about a Costco outlet that sold Bibles with a sticker that identified them as fiction. This was followed up with the expected outpouring of outrage and Costco changing the stickers on at least some of the bibles.

I was raised Roman Catholic, but it didn't take. :-) A friend on Google Plus remarked that he thought of the Bible as a great book, even though he has never actually read the whole thing. I found this comment fascinating because I don't think the Bible is a great book, despite the fact that I've read the whole thing three times in my life. You might say that every ten years or so, I go through it again to reaffirm my atheism.

Joking aside, there are some fascinating passages here and there, but most of what is in the Bible is terrible writing, some of if likely under the influence of magic mushrooms or whatever drug was handy at the time. Much of what we have today is the result of a committee approach to editing, without much care for consistency, accuracy, or style.

It's an extremely important book, which I suppose is one of the reasons I've read it more than once. Much of our society is rooted in biblical lore and as such, it's important to understand what it is and what's in it if you're going to understand how we got to where we are today.

Unfortunately, most Christians have never actually read the Bible. By reading, I mean cover to cover, reading every word in sequence. The 'buffet' approach to bible study, picking passages here and there, doesn't teach you a thing other than how to find only the 'good bits'. This is, sadly, how churches work. It's also what allows people to continue referring to it as the 'Good Book' since they've only been brought up to see or hear about the good bits. Their pastor or shaman skips over the stoning adulterers, owning slaves, throwing your virgin daughters to a horny crowd, daughters having sex with their father, rampant genocide, and so on, eventually landing on "love thy neighbour".

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Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.